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Liverpool, Juventus set to make early European start
LONDON: Just how far Liverpool’s fortunes have sunk in the last year will be apparent when their Europa League campaign begins Thursday (today) with a trip to Macedonia in the third qualifying round.
It’s a journey Liverpool have described as “a trip into the unknown.”
Not only is Rabotnicki — a club from Skopje that Liverpool describes on their website as “minnows” — an unknown opponent for the five-time European winners, but never before have the Reds had to begin a campaign in Europe’s second-tier knockout competition so early.
A victory over two legs won’t even guarantee a spot in the Europa League group stage, with the winning team then forced to negotiate a playoff next month.
Financially troubled Liverpool are lucky to be competing in Europe this season. The 2009 Premier League runners-up slumped to seventh last season and only qualified because FA Cup finalists Portsmouth were in a worse financial predicament and fell foul of UEFA regulations.
“There’s been a lot of negativity and it’s been like that for a while,” Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said. “It’s a rebuilding process again and hopefully we can get ourselves right up there (again).”
The same goes for Juventus. The two-time European champions are still emerging from losing key players after being relegated in 2006 following a match-fixing scandal.
After finishing seventh in Serie A, Juventus are also in action on Thursday, facing Irish side Shamrock Rovers.
“It will be a year of sacrifice,” Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini said. “We must start from zero and reconstruct the base but this is normal after what happened last year.”
Like Liverpool, who have hired Roy Hodgson as manager, Juventus are embarking on its European campaign with a new boss at the helm: Luigi Del Neri.
“A managerial cycle has ended, some players have changed there is much renewal going on and it is normal that time is needed,” Chiellini said. “Three years ago, we would have hoped to be on a different level. Last year, we thought we could do well and win something but we know how things went.
“Now we must examine our conscience, understand where we went wrong and work in order to improve ... the supporters must understand it will be a year of reconstruction.”
Like Liverpool, Juventus aren’t thinking about winning the league this season, instead prioritising returning to the Champions League in 2011.
“The fact that we are not taking part in it this season really bothers us,” Chiellini said. “We must rebuild the group and the team and this will happen only one match at a time and one training session after another. We are learning what the coach wants but we still have a long way to go and he was the first to tell us in a more direct manner.”
“Our minimum objective is Champions League qualification,” he said. “We have shown the promise that we can be competitive again but let’s not think about Inter Milan because we’re not at their level and we’re thinking about ourselves.”
A low point of last season for Juventus was being ousted from the Europa League at the last-16 stage by Fulham — then managed by Hodgson before his off-season move to Liverpool.
“We know we are under pressure to do well and we’re answering the questions as carefully as we can, but we’re also very realistic and know there is a big job to do,” said Hodgson, whose unfashionable Fulham side was beaten in the Europa League final by Atletico Madrid.
“Rome was not built in a day, we’ve got that in mind, but the important thing for the fans to know is that we will be working towards the targets they have set for the club.”
To avoid an early setback against Rabotnicki, Hodgson could risk playing Steven Gerrard, Carragher, Glen Johnson and new signing Joe Cole — in spite of the quartet still recovering from their World Cup campaigns with England. There are 33 other Europa League qualifying third-round matches this week.
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